• Always warm up before you start lifting weights. This helps get your muscles warm and prevent injury. You can warm up with light cardio or by doing a light set of each exercise before going to heavier weights.
• Lift and lower your weights slowly. Don’t use momentum to lift the weight. If you have to swing to get the weight up, chances are you’re using too much weight.
• Breathe. Don’t hold your breath, instead inhale as you lower the weight and exhale while you lift the weight.
• Use the full range of motion throughout the movement.
• Use good form! Pay attention to your posture and keep everything straight. Engage your abs in every movement you’re doing to keep your balance and protect your spine. Check out diagrams, photos, or video of good form for each lift; or hire a personal trainer to show you how it is done.
• Rest. Give yourself 1-3 minutes between sets and don’t work the same muscles two days in a row.
• Balance. If you leave any muscle group out, this could cause an imbalance in your muscles and possibly lead to injuries.
• Get help. If you are going to be lifting near your max you’ll need a spotter to avoid injury
• Start your workout with the largest muscle in your target muscle group and work towards the smallest.
• Use as much weight as you can while still maintaining good form. Increase weight as your strength increases.
• Reps (usually 3 sets of the indicated reps per lift):
  • Strength: 4-8 reps

  • Fat loss: 10-12 reps
  • Endurance: 12-18 reps

Erin Shea has a great tip on eating healthy:

So the first cardinal rule of healthy nutrition is to eat real food. If you’re unsure about whether it’s food, ask yourself if it would have been recognizable in the year 1800. Popcorn soaked in fluorescent-yellow buttery flavoring? Strike one. Rice cakes plastered with a sugary apple-cinnamon coating? Strike two. Frozen yogurt? You’re out. (Damn.)

She goes on to describe the basic difference between Good and Bad carbs, fats, and protein.

Shereen Jegtvig also has some good tips on processed foods. She lists the following as bad processed foods:

• canned foods with lots of sodium
• white breads and pastas made with refined white flour
• packaged high calorie snack foods like chips and cheese snacks
• high fat foods like cans of ravioli and spaghetti
• frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners
• packaged cakes and cookies
• boxes of meal mixes
• sugary breakfast cereals
• processed meats

She mentions milk, frozen vegetables, and fruit and vegetable juice as examples of good processed foods.

Another sign that our medical and pharmaceutical systems are in trouble; people resorting to ordering medication online were shipped the wrong pills, sending some to the hospital. Consumers who thought they were purchasing sleep aids, antidepressants and other drugs over the Internet instead were shipped a powerful antipsychotic.

Preliminary analysis of the pills, packaged in plain plastic bags and mailed in envelopes bearing Greek postmarks, suggest they contain haloperidol. The FDA said it had reports of several consumers who took the pills seeking emergency medical treatment for symptoms such as difficulty breathing, muscle spasms and muscle stiffness.

The FDA used the occasion to remind consumers of the possible dangers of buying prescription drugs online.

While we foolishly debate whether we should even research stem cells the Japanese are already using stem cells in cosmetic surgeries.

Women have grown their own breast implants through pioneering stem cell treatment, it emerged yesterday.

Scientists harvested the stem cells from the women’s own fat and encouraged them to form breast tissue.

The technique creates more natural looking breasts that don’t shrink over time and don’t have problems with leaky implants.

New Scientist has a disconcerting article about why antioxidants may actually contribute to the problems they are supposed to help prevent.

We have become antioxidant devotees. But are they doing us any good? Evidence gathered over the past few years shows that at best, antioxidant supplements do little or nothing to benefit our health. At worst, they may even have the opposite effect, promoting the very problems they are supposed to stamp out.

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